There’s a television show on TLC you may or may not have heard of. It’s called Long Island Medium and it’s already in its 8th season. It stars Theresa Caputo who is a purported medium who can communicate with the deceased. This series chronicles the work Theresa does each day as she helps her varied clients find closure and connect with loved ones who have passed. She conducts both private and group readings and deals with skeptics as well as believers. At home, husband Larry and kids Victoria and Larry accept the work she does, although they don’t always love it. In the Caputo house, dad and kids think the spirits always come first, but for Theresa there is no escaping her gift.
The show has picked up quite a following that includes 820k followers on Theresa’s twitter account and over 2 million likes on the show’s Facebook page. Caputo recently launched a book called Good Grief: Heal Your Soul, Honor Your Loved Ones, and Learn to Live Again. Caputo’s been in some headlines because she’s finally had enough of skeptics criticizing those who “believe.”
“I’m not asking anyone to believe in what I do. Everyone has a right to their own opinion,” Caputo said in a recent telephone interview. What she doesn’t understand is how skeptics think people who do believe in psychic readings are wrong: “How can someone tell someone that what they’re experiencing isn’t real?”
Caputo believes that if someone has a session with a medium and then walks away feeling uplifted and empowered, people should respect that.
I think the old me would have made fun of this calling her profession a hoot. And by no means am I saying I believe in psychics because I don’t. But I will say this. The way I look at the psychic industry or in particular Caputo’s case, is very similar to a religion. I’m not saying it’s right. In fact I think it’s borderline ridiculous, but if it makes a person’s life better is it so bad? When it comes to religion, if a person believes what they believe without pushing their religion onto others aggressively, doesn’t promote violence and leads a better life because of it, is that so bad? I personally think that’s the point Caputo is trying to make. It’s when those opinions get pushed onto other people and disputes form that it becomes dangerous. Nothing wrong with disagreeing with what Caputo does but if her clients get value out of it in a positive way, she’s a got a point.
What’s up with her hair though?
Here’s her interview with AP
AP: This season we’ve seen you give readings to some celebrities. Is it different reading a celebrity versus a regular person?
Caputo: For me there’s no difference. Once I get over the initial shock that they know who I am and that they watch “Long Island Medium,” they’re just like any other client. At the end of the day we’re all the same and they lost someone they want to hear from just like everyone else. People might say, ‘Oh, you can easily find out things if someone is a celebrity’ but the things that they want to talk about (with a spirit) there’s no way I could find out. To hear the messages O’Donnell heard from her father was incredible.
AP: What’s the lesson from your new book?
Caputo: (Grieving) doesn’t have to be negative. We can grieve in a positive way. Spirit might come through and say, ‘I just want you to live life. It’s OK. Go out and go to movies again, go out to dinner.’ It’s OK to start dating again after losing your spouse. My clients would say, ‘That’s great but how do I do this? I need some type of guidance.’ With ‘Good Grief,’ after each chapter we have healing moments where there’s an activity whether it’s writing in a journal or going out and doing something physical in memory of your loved one. It’s giving you permission to grieve how you need to grieve and also to realize that you might not go through some of the steps of grief. You might not have emotion or guilt. Everyone grieves differently.
AP: Do you find people wonder if they’re grieving properly?
Caputo: It happened in my own family. My mom and her two sisters lost their father – my grandfather. My one aunt was grieving differently than my mom and her other sister. She couldn’t talk about my grandfather. It was hard for her. Where we didn’t want to skip a beat and we all wanted to be together, even more so. We didn’t try to talk her into doing thing but let her do and grieve the way that she felt she needed to.
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